May just need a new install of the OS. Did scandisk show anything up whe you ran it? You could try dumping linux on there to see if its the HD. Did you back everthing up before it died or do you need to try and rescue anythiung
The very lovely Neil ( crawl crawl) has been round tonight and taken the offending item away, if he manages to fix it I will no doubt owe a lifetime of favours eek but here's hoping for a happy outcome , I will sacrifice all to have my pc back and some peace and quiet!